Council of Mutual Economic Assistance in Search of Ways to Develop Agriculture in Mongolia: Analyzing the Expert Group Report of 12 September 1963

Introduction. By the time Mongolia joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, it was a remarkably agriculture-oriented economy, which made it logical that Mongolian representatives would raise the problems of their national agriculture at meetings and sessions of the Council’s bodies. Goals. The study aims to investigate some specific decisions that facilitated the compilation of the CMEA expert group report dated 12 September 1963, and attempts an analysis of its key provisions. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on archival materials contained in Collections 561 (‘CMEA Secretariat’) and 302 (‘Permanent Mission of the USSR to the CMEA’) of the Russian State Archive of the Economy, as well as files from Collection 10 (‘International Conferences and Meetings’) of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History. The main research methods employed are the historical-descriptive and historical-genetic ones. Results. The report was prepared by a group of agricultural experts representing CMEA member countries which worked in Mongolia from 13 August to 12 September 1963. The experts’ departure was a consequence of a change in the initial procedure for developing proposals aimed at improving Mongolia’s agricultural production. Conclusions. The CMEA expert group report of 12 September 1963 had a complicated and ornate background be traced back to the 16th Session of the CMEA which admitted Mongolia to the organization. Structurally, it consists of 7 same-type sections describing various areas of assistance to Mongolia’s agriculture. In the course of the works, the expert group reviewed the list and scope of positions for the proposed assistance, and at the same time — most importantly — expert support was provided to meet the requests of Mongolia’s representatives, while the latter were still to defend the implementation of the measures recorded in the Report in the course of coordinating the national economic plans of the CMEA member countries.

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